Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair (25 page)

Ice stood up as soon as Reno balled his fist.
 
He was ready.
 
He used to prize fight back in the day, and had bulked up in
prison.
 
He could handle himself.
 
And he did.
 
He put up his dukes and was ready to go.
 
But Reno was a hurricane to Ice’s light rain.
 
He hit Ice with one punch that took him to
his knees, and then proceeded to beat him down.
 
Ice fell over his chair, tried to get back up, but Reno was down on him,
beating him in the face, in the stomach, all over his body as if he was a dog
in the street.

“Okay,” he started crying.
 
“You win!
 
You win,
got
dammit!
 
You win!”

But it was no game to Reno.
 
He kept beating the shit out of Ice.
 
It was his man who kidnapped Reno’s
children.
 
He was hooked up with those
agents who paid off Debrosiac and had their men try to take Jimmy out.
 
He was the one who allowed his man to dangle
Sophie over that bridge.
 
He was the one
who wanted Trina dead.
 
Which meant he had
to die.
 
And Reno didn’t stop, he didn’t
let up, until his mission was accomplished.
 
And the Iceman was coming no more.
 
Reno stood up only after the Iceman was dead.

His men were shocked by the barbarity.
 
Even they had never seen anything like
it.
 
But Reno stood there, barely able to
regulate his breathing, his knuckles in indescribable pain.
 
But that threat was neutralized.
 
That threat was avenged.
 
Reno was so drained by what he had done to
Ice that he almost forgot about Quinn.

But he couldn’t forget about Quinn.
 
Like Debrosiac, her betrayal cut too close.

“We can handle her, boss,” one of his men said.
 
They could see the drain too.

But Reno shook his head.
 
“Clean this shit up,” he said.
 
“I’ll take care of her.”

“Yes, sir,” they said, as Reno grabbed his Glock,
and made his way downstairs.

With Val and Maddie staying at Jimmy’s bedside, Lee
drove Trina and her two little ones back to the PaLargio, while Sal drove Gemma
back to their estate.
 
Only Gemma wanted
details.

“What happened exactly?” she asked her husband.

“Long story short,” Sal said as he drove.
 
“Tree used to manage this nightclub when she
lived in Dale.”

“I remember she told me that.
 
She was very young, but she was tough.”

“Tougher than you think,” Sal said.
 
“She had this drug dealing boyfriend who
provided females to his big suppliers.
 
Trina recruited the girls for him.”

Gemma was shocked.
 
“Trina?
 
Really
?”

“I know,” Sal said.
 
“She was a little madam back in the day.
 
She admitted it herself.
 
Well,
one of the girls killed herself after being raped by one of those suppliers,
and Tree felt guilty.
 
She wanted out or
she was afraid she was going to end up like that girl.
 
But her boyfriend had his henchman pick her
up and take her to his place.
 
Unbeknownst
to her boyfriend or to her, the henchman was an FBI informant, and he had wired
the drug dealer’s apartment.
 
They were
on tape.
 
She hit the guy over the
head---”

“On tape?” Gemma asked.

“On tape,” Sal said with a shake of his head.
 
“She was thinking she’d just knock him out so
she could get away.
 
She wasn’t trying to
kill him or anything like that.
 
But the
snitch, some guy named Stokey, died from that blow to the head.”

Gemma frowned.
 
“Stokey?” she asked, before Sal could continue.

Sal looked at her.
 
“Yeah, why?”

“Stokey Jones?”

“I don’t know his last name, but why?”

“Stokey Jones was my distant cousin.
 
Lee is my cousin too, you know.
 
He’s Lee’s kid brother.
 
He was killed in Mississippi too.
 
But they caught the guy that killed
Stokey.
 
He was a drug dealer.
 
He went to prison for that crime.”

Sal slammed on brakes.
 
His car almost skidded.

Quinn was in the basement of the safe house.
 
When Reno walked in, she looked weary, but
determined, like Ice, to state her case.
 
But Reno didn’t want to hear it.

“It’s over, Quinn,” he said.
 
“Kim is dead.
 
Those two agents are dead.
 
Iceman
Nelson is dead.
 
And you already saw what
I did to your brother.”

“What about Lee?” she asked.

Reno stared at her.
 
Lee?
 
What the fuck did Lee have
to do with this?
 
“First you blame my
wife,” Reno said.
 
“Now you’re blaming
Lee Jones.”
 
Reno lifted his weapon.
 
Enough of this shit.”

“When you dumped Kim Galecki, she and Lee started
fooling around.
 
It didn’t last
long.
 
She moved on to her next boy
toy.
 
But when she found that tape with
Trina killing that informant, she contacted Lee.
 
Not because she wanted him back.
 
But because that informant turned out to be
Lee’s brother.”

Reno frowned.
 
“Get the fuck out of here!”

“It’s the truth, Reno!
 
That’s how I got involved.
 
Not through Kim like you think.
 
But through Lee.
 
He wanted revenge on your wife, and he knew I
would cooperate.”

Reno was floored.
 
Lee was Kim’s mole? Not Quinn?
 
He
couldn’t believe it.
 
Despite a problem a
while back that eased their closeness, he and Lee had been friends for years!

But Quinn was determined to tell Reno who the real
bad guy was, and exonerate herself.
 
She
did shit too, but nothing like what Lee did to him.
 
“Lee set up Jimmy with that male prostitute,”
she said, “and filmed it.
 
Lee was the
one who pulled me in, and I pulled my brother in.
 
Lee was the one who threatened my job, my
livelihood if I didn’t comply.”

Reno’s cell phone rang.
 
Reno looked at his Caller ID.

“Not that I had to be persuaded,” Quinn
admitted.
 
“I always thought she was
wrong for you, and that tape only proved how right I was.”

When Reno saw that it was Sal, he answered quickly.

Before he could even say hello, Sal was
yelling.
 
“
It’s Lee, Reno!
 
It’s Lee!
 
He’s driving Tree and the children home, but
it’s him.
 
Stokey was his brother!
 
That FBI snitch Tree killed was his brother!”

Reno’s heart dropped through his shoes, and he took
off.
 
He ran up the stairs three at a
time, ready to bolt out of that basement and out of that safe house faster than
the speed of light, when he remembered Quinn.
 
He remembered that stone.
 
And he
turned around and shot her straight through the heart.
 
Three times.
 
To be sure.
 
Then he kept running.

“What do you want us to do, boss?” one of his men
asked, as they met him at the top of the stairs.

“Bury that bitch,” Reno said, and took off.

Lee’s Volvo was driving toward the PaLargio, with
Tree in the passenger seat and Sophie and Dommi in the backseat.
 
It was late, it was three in the morning, and
Sophie was asleep.
 
Dommi and Trina were
nearly asleep themselves, until Lee pulled over to the side of the road.

“What’s wrong?” Trina asked, looking out at the
darkness around them.
 
There were street
lights, but very little traffic.

“I knew Kim Galecki,” Lee said.

Trina was shocked.
 
Reno had taken care of Kim Galecki earlier that evening.
 
Why was he bringing her up now?
 
“What do you mean you knew her?” she asked.

“I knew her,” Lee said.
 
“Reno dumped her after he met you, so she
turned to me.
 
Why not, I thought.
 
It would be our secret.
 
For years we fooled around.
 
I kept her posted on Reno, she actually was
in love with that joker once upon a time, and she kept me, let’s say satisfied.
 
It worked for us.
 
And if I ever needed to get out of a jam, I
figured why should Reno have all the contacts?
 
It wasn’t like we were close like that anymore.
 
Then it was time for Iceman Nelson to be
released, and since Stokey was my brother---”

Trina couldn’t believe it.
 
“Stokey
what
?
 
Stokey was your brother?”

“My baby brother,” Lee said with pride.
 
“I raised him.
 
He was everything to me.
 
Since he was my brother, the Notifications
unit had to notify me.
 
Those crooked
agents out of Mississippi got her involved in the case, and she notified me
herself.
 
But not just to notify me.
 
She wanted to make a deal.
 
Because she ran across that tape.
 
Of you.
 
The real killer.
 
Killing my baby
brother.”

 
Trina could
feel his anguish, and she was still reeling by the news herself.
 
But she knew she couldn’t just sit there and
wait him out.
 
She had her children in
that car.
 
If he killed her, who would
protect them?
 
Reno taught her to never
panic, but plan.
 
Plan, Tree!
 
Let him talk, but you plan!

“Kim put this scheme together,” Lee continued, “for
this big payday for all of us.
 
I figured
why the hell not.
 
Why not get my
millions?
 
And then get you.
 
But Reno is always too clever.
 
He figured it out.
 
Now the money’s off the table.
 
But not the blood.”

Trina could feel her own blood boil.
 
But she kept complete eye contact with him,
as she eased her hand into her pocket.

“Ice thought he was going to be the one to make you
bleed for what you did to him,” Lee continued, “but I knew better.
 
That pleasure, for my baby brother, belongs
to me.”

Lee pulled out his gun and put it to Trina’s head.
 
But at that same moment Trina pulled out her
own gun, the one she was packing, and put it to his balls.
  
Lee was stunned.

“Try me,” she said.
 
“I really want you to try me.”

Outside of the car, Reno drove up in his Porsche so
fast that he almost drove right past them.
 
He slung over to the side of the road just in time.
 
Sal and Gemma drove up behind him.
 
They all had prayed Lee didn’t detour from
the route that would take them from the hospital to the PaLargio, and he
hadn’t.
 
He didn’t have to.
 
He was going to do his dirty work on the side
of the road.

Now Reno and Sal’s cars were on the side of the road
too, and Reno and Sal were jumping out, their guns at the ready, as they ran
toward the Volvo.
 
But just as they began
running, a flash of light from inside Lee’s car could be seen through the
darkness, and then the sound of gunfire.

Gemma, still in Sal’s car, prayed when she saw that
flash and heard that gunshot, but Reno and Sal ran.
 
Their hearts hammering, but they ran.
 
When they ran up to the car, Reno flung the
door open, ready to take Lee away from this earth.
 
But Lee was slumped over dead, his balls like
bloody minced meat.
 
Tree had already
done the favor.
 
Sal turned away, when he
saw that meat.